I grew up reading non-dual texts from Hindu saints. Anandamayi Ma, Paramahansa Yogananda, Ramana Maharshi. They didn't say the path was easy, quite the opposite, but it seemed much simpler and safer than Nei Gong and Nei Dan, which seem much more intricate and riskier. For reference, the Hindu teachers promoted that meditation on the breath (anapanasati) and good deeds were enough to bring one into a state of tranquility and enligtenment. They also didn't warn the practitioner of dangers. I have read many warnings already about the microcosmic orbit for example and it's something people like Mantak Chia teach nonchalantly.

As I deepen my study of Daoism, new ideas come. i realize that any spiritual work carries risks but hinduist teachers just didn't explore them a great deal in their teachings. I for once practiced solely anapanasati. In a period, for as much as 6 or 8h a day, and it wasn't something healthy. I progressed, yes, but at the same time it felt like I had regressed. My physical and mental health deteriorated. I became sensitive, delusional. In addition, Daoism, at least the sources I'm reading, says concentration exercises are only the beginning, not the end, as one needs to have a disciplined, detached, and strong mind to delve in further work. Regarding this "further work", there are authors, like Mark Stavish from the Hermetic tradition that claim that true enlightenment is a terrifying, disturbing process (which made me consider living my life normally and not attempting any practice beyond moderate concentration), while others claim it can be a peaceful, pleasant path, like Stuart Alve Olson, from Daoism. Within Daoism, there are people like Nathan Brine, who is far more restrictive, and whom some people have told me to keep away from.

It creates a certain confusion. I want a deeper meditation, a healthier body and a more balanced, well-lived life, and as I search to move foward, there is contradiction. I have suffered the consequences of developing spirituality based on intuition only, so at the very least I know I must choose with care what I do and learn. I also filter somehow based on what the teacher is offering. For example, Rudi Coetzer, from Authentic NeiGong. I must say I haven't started his course, but seeing a few reports of students and of his own videos, he seems focused on externalizing Qi, including giving electric zaps on people. Pardon my terminology. I am not well versed and I think it could be described better. In any case, this externalization is something I have read warnings about as it could deplete and disrupt Qi. On the other hand, Nathan Brine in his lineage seems focused on inner work but it imposes a series of restrictions and risks. He himself says his system is not for building health or creating balance. It creates a dissonant tone with me. How can a system produce enlightenment without also producing balance? It makes one thing clear: there are many teachers, many ways, and not all are adequate to everyone. So far, Stuart Alven Olson is what seems most aligned with me as he presents the process in a light, positive manner but also ensuring that it's effective and will lead to results. However, I lack knowledge to know if it's adequate. My goals are balance and purification. I seek peace, bliss, health, connection. I believe "transcending" isn't quite what I'm after as I want to be here on Earth. I want to be fully human, I want to connect deeply with those around me. In earlier periods when I meditated more, I was able to have a feeling that the world was a garden and every life, even human life, was a flower. That everyone was a friend. This feeling of all-encompassing unity and benevolence is enough for me, so I want the strength and the wisdom to create and maintain it in my ordinary life.

If someone could comment on these authors, their differences and whether they can help me, I'd be grateful. If you know other online courses you feel are closer to what I'm seeking, you are also free to mention it.

You can regularly read the Tao Te Ching (道德经) and The Anthology of Zhongli and Lü on the Transmission of the Dao (钟吕传道集), and read them alongside some scriptures for cultivation—first read, then contemplate, and then practice. For example, The Secret of the Golden Flower (太乙金华宗旨)—however, this book was written by a later outstanding figure under the name of Patriarch Lü. It contains secrets that truly reveal heavenly mysteries, but it is very difficult for ordinary people to understand its true meaning. Only after reaching a certain level of attainment and reading it again can one suddenly become enlightened. Recommended scriptures include The Sayings of Leyu Tang (乐育堂语录), Awakening to Reality (悟真篇), and The Wu-Liu Lineage (伍柳法脉), among others; then practice in combination with The Origin and Flow of Qi (炁体源流). But in the end, no matter what cultivation method a scripture teaches, the result it points to is the same—one can only say that different paths lead to the same destination.

Living off our needs and necessities, seems much closer to the life of a sage, than of someone who keeps wanting.

That being said, "want" isn't a culprit. And we should be careful to not ask each other to not want, or to avoid wanting as much as possible.

To want, is to be human. However, we must also reach the maturity to understand and accept the fact that many of our wantings may never be realized.

That's not necessary a bad thing, it can actually give more value to the things we have successfully achieved, rather than making achievement seem mundane.

To want is to desire, and desires are selfish for the most part. Even if it may not appear that way at first glance.

For example, the desire to take care of your sick mother.

That sense of desire is motivated by a fear of loss, cherished memories, and perhaps guilt. But also, it's accompanied by our sense of sympathy, and genuine love. So within desire, compassion isn't lacking, nonetheless

There's nothing wrong with any of that.

Despite most desires having a selfish backbone, we need to understand WHAT is it that you desire, until what extent are you willing to go in order to obtain it? Do you have any moral red lines? And lastly, will you be able to come to terms with the idea that your desire may not come true?

To discard our wants, is to discard being human. It's better to not concern ourselves in what's a want and what's a need. As long as there's a willingness to let go when we feel the time is right, everything will be fine.

If the Tao exists within everything, the physical self is consequently an expression of such. Consciousness is an expression of the Tao, signifying the Tao exists within consciousness. Chapter 13 of Tao Te Ching states that the physical self is the vessel of all fear, but wouldn’t fear be a manifestation of the Tao? Would resisting fear by relieving worry abt the physical self be resisting the Tao? Therefore, can we ever disconnect from the Tao if it encompasses everything including resisting the natural flow? Not immersing in the Tao is still experiencing the Tao. One is still participating in nature; the natural flow is occurring but manifesting in a different manner. If suffering and resistance are both expressions of the Tao, is there any significance in resisting vs accepting the natural flow? Can you truly resist the natural flow if the Tao is ever changing and w in everything?

I am impressed with those here that are enlightened by correct translations of the Tao Te Ching. I was not aware of those like Stephen Mitchell whose so called translations are mistakenly revered by so many. I have read many translations and I'm now more motivated for accurate ones. I recently bought Wen-Tzu understanding the mysteries Further Teachings of Lao-Tzu translated by Thomas Cleary. Is this a good one? OR What might be a better choice?

Also what is a good accurate translation of the writings of Zhuangzi?

In Part 16, we followed the growth of a company selling products through livestreams. As it grew, every department kept working toward its own targets, but information was lost as it passed from person to person. Eventually, no one could see the whole picture. Even without anyone intending harm, the system could drift away from its original purpose.

A natural solution suggests itself: if nobody is responsible for the whole company, why not create another department to oversee the others?

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

A New Department to Oversee Everything

Suppose you see other creators getting into trouble over the products they sell. You decide your company won't make the same mistakes. You create a department to supervise the business teams and make sure product selection doesn't go wrong. You might even tell them, “I'd rather sell nothing than let a single faulty product go on sale.”

The department starts hiring and reviewing past products, selection procedures, negotiations, prices, and margins. There may already be problems buried in the old way of working. The new department also needs to prove its value by finding them. The bigger the problems it uncovers, the more important its work appears.

This means the new department has interests and targets of its own. Being asked to look at the whole system doesn't put it outside that system.

As the reports land on your desk, you may actually feel relieved. Creating this department was the right decision. There really was a lot that needed fixing.

Safer Products, More Fear of Mistakes

The changes come through rules and procedures. Every step of product selection gets a detailed set of requirements. Each role has defined duties and authority. The required paperwork is specified too.

Individuals are held accountable. If a product they selected turns out to have problems or can't withstand scrutiny, they may be penalized or even lose their jobs. Kickbacks or other improper benefits could bring legal consequences too. The commercial and livestream teams get their own new rules.

If you insist on strict enforcement and the new department carries it out effectively, the results may show up quickly. Even products with minor defects are kept off the list. Quality improves, and the risks in product selection really do fall.

But employees are adapting too. As the cost of a mistake rises, avoiding mistakes becomes their first concern. They can live with a smaller bonus. Taking on a risk that might cost them their job is another matter.

They used to focus on their business targets. Now they pay more attention to whether every step follows the procedure. Even if they know a supplier is reliable, a missing document or an unmet requirement can be enough for them to refuse an exception. If something goes wrong, they'll be the one held responsible. The supplier can appeal to the boss, but the employee handling the case won't readily sign it off.

A Safer Company, with Less Room to Move

More departments and more rules mean more stages for information to pass through. To prevent things getting lost along the way, people hold meetings to get everyone on the same page. That means more meetings. Your calendar fills up. As the founder, you may struggle to find time to sleep, let alone quietly make a video.

The procedures get longer too. A decision needs several signatures or another round of meetings. Nobody wants to make the call, because nobody wants responsibility for the exception.

Some suppliers tire of the demands and go to other companies. You end up selling more and more of the same familiar brands. A long relationship is treated as safer. Trying a new brand means more uncertainty to explain.

The company seems better protected against product problems, but it is losing its flexibility. Innovation comes with uncertainty. If a failed attempt could cost someone their job, few people will want to take the chance.

Meanwhile, followers and customers who trusted you may start complaining that the company takes too long to get things done. A problem goes unresolved. The product risks are under control, but trust can wear away in those delays.

A Document That Was Hard to Get

There is an account from Beijing, years ago, of a couple applying for a birth permit. Both husband and wife were only children, so under the policy at the time, they were allowed to have a second child.

The application got stuck on an unexpected document. The husband's mother had died, and an official asked him to provide proof that his father had not had any more children since her death.

He explained that his father hadn't remarried. The answer was that not remarrying didn't prove he hadn't had another child. His father was almost eighty, but that still couldn't replace the required document. He was told to get a statement from his father's former workplace or the local neighborhood office.

The family had little contact with the neighborhood office, and no one wanted to certify something they didn't know. His father had also been retired for almost twenty years, with few familiar people left to approach at his old workplace. This document nearly blocked something the couple was otherwise entitled to do under the policy.

What I find difficult about this example is how hard it is to identify anyone deliberately making trouble. The official asks for what the procedure requires. The person asked to certify it won't vouch for facts they don't know. Who wants to take responsibility for a mistake on behalf of a stranger? Demands as absurd as “prove your mother is your mother” can emerge from procedures that everyone is following carefully.

Control Becomes Part of the System Too

Back at the livestream company, you added supervision and rules to avoid problems you'd seen elsewhere. Product quality really did improve.

But the new department has targets of its own. Employees start organizing their work around inspections, while information has further to travel and you spend more time in meetings. Control isn't a hand operating from outside the system. It enters the system and becomes part of its complexity.

As controls increase, people spend more effort figuring out how to satisfy procedures and pass checks. Safety on paper can gradually replace the real safety those procedures were meant to protect. An organization created to solve problems starts spending much of its energy keeping itself running.

I don't think an organization's most dangerous moment is necessarily when it looks out of control. Everything may look orderly, and everyone may be able to show that they followed the rules, while getting things done well becomes harder and harder.

What This Suggests About Wu Wei

To me, wu wei here doesn't mean abandoning management. It cautions against trying to contain a system's complexity by adding unlimited layers of human control.

The Tao Te Ching says:

“Of the best rulers, the people barely know they exist.”

Read alongside the company in our example, this makes me think of a good leader who doesn't keep making the organization more complicated in the pursuit of control. People may not constantly feel the leader's presence, yet things still work. That's one way I approach this line through a modern organization.

The question isn't settled, though. Pursuing endless expansion can turn a system against its own purpose. Making it increasingly rigid to prevent a loss of control can do the same. I want to keep exploring what a healthy system might look like, and how to understand not contending, holding to softness, and “know the masculine, hold to the feminine” in that context. That's for the next part.

If you've encountered this at work or while dealing with an organization, I'd be interested to hear about it: which procedure, originally meant to reduce risk, ended up making things harder to do?

AI disclosure: English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help translate and edit the English.

If you'd like to read the earlier posts in this series, you can find them here:

Reading Index: The Taoist Worldview and Tao Te Ching 101

“When people first enter the Taoist path, many ask, “I have no spiritual gifts. Can I practice the Tao?” In truth, the Tao does not ask about one's background. Cultivation begins with a single sincere thought. Some seek the Tao because they feel lost, some because of faith, and others simply out of curiosity. Though their reasons differ, each can become the beginning of cultivation.

The so-called “Taoist spiritual foundation” is not only determined by innate ability, but also shaped through later cultivation. When the heart is clear, one's energy becomes upright; when one's will is firm, the path becomes clear. Practicing the Tao is not about escaping the world, but about cultivating the heart and refining oneself, letting go of greed, anger, delusion and desire, while maintaining integrity, observing discipline, doing good and accumulating virtue in daily life.

The hardest part of practicing the Tao is not making a resolution, but maintaining focus and perseverance. True cultivation means not giving up in difficult times, remaining steadfast when faced with temptation, and continuing to improve throughout the years. What is gained through persistent cultivation reveals true practice.

Whether one believes or not is a personal choice; whether one cultivates or not is also one's own choice. If you sincerely seek the Tao, begin with a clear and sincere heart, and practice through every moment of self-reflection and perseverance. The Tao is not somewhere distant or unreachable, it is found within the cultivation of one's heart, character and actions.”

- written by “Don’t Know Nothing” (not me).
Don’t Know Nothings page can be found on FB.

從迷茫到篤信，普通人應該如何修道

初入道門，很多人都會問：「我沒有慧根，能修道嗎？」其實，道不問出身，修行始於一念。有人因迷茫而求道，有人因信仰而入道，也有人因好奇而問道，緣起雖不同，皆可成為修行的開始。

所謂「道骨」，不只在先天資質，更在後天修煉。心清則氣正，志堅則道明。修道並非逃避世俗，而是修心煉己，去除貪、嗔、癡、欲，在日常中守正、守戒、行善、積德。

修道最難的，不是立志，而是專一與恒心。真正的修行，是在困境中不退，在誘惑前守心，在歲月中持續精進。天生道骨固然難得，後天磨煉更見真功。

信與不信，由自己選擇；修與不修，也在自己。若真心問道，便當從一念清明開始，從每一次自省與堅守做起。道不在遙遠之處，而在自己的心性與行持之中。

In Part 15, we looked at emergence: how many small interactions can produce a complex whole without anyone designing it. This time, I want to follow one example further. A system can be doing very well while pressures are already building inside it, pulling it away from its original purpose. I want to look at how success can turn toward its opposite, starting while everything still seems to be going right.

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

The First Video That Takes Off

Suppose you decide to make videos online. Maybe you want some extra income, or maybe you just have something to share. You pick a direction and post your first video. A few hundred views, almost no comments, barely any new followers.

You keep going. A month passes, perhaps several, and the results still aren't good. You start studying other creators, watching how they make popular videos, and trying different styles. Or you decide to stick with the kind of work you wanted to make in the first place.

Then suppose one video takes off. Maybe it picks up on something people are already talking about. Maybe all that experimenting finally pays off, with timing and luck helping too. Whatever the reason, more people start arriving than you've ever seen before.

You put work into it, but you couldn't plan the audience's response in advance. Your work reached a particular group at a particular moment, and the platform put it in front of more people. The result grew out of that process.

Once a style works, continuing with it makes sense. People followed you because they liked it. You make more, they respond, and the platform may amplify that response. Your audience grows, which makes you more willing to keep going. Positive feedback feels good. It seems you've finally found your direction.

Turning Trust into a Business

Eventually, you start thinking about earning money. A merchant might approach you, or you might decide to try selling products on a livestream.

Your intention is clear: recommend reliable products and do right by the people who trust you. You choose carefully. At first, you may only be willing to recommend a few products you've used yourself and feel confident about.

Suppose the first livestream goes well. People like your videos and trust your judgment, so they buy. You earn more than you expected. You keep making videos and selling products. More merchants approach you, and the business grows.

Soon, it's too much for one person. Filming, talking to suppliers, checking products, negotiating prices, planning livestreams: all of it takes time. Hiring help seems like the obvious next step.

So you set up a company. Someone finds merchants, someone selects products, someone negotiates prices and commissions. Others organize filming and livestreams. Sales improve, you offer more products and stream more often, and the team grows. Investors may start taking an interest. Nobody plans to let the audience down, but you're already making decisions under different pressures.

Everyone Has a Different Target

The product selection team is responsible for quality. The commercial team wants a price low enough to compete with other sellers while still leaving a profit. The livestream team watches sales, how the streams are doing, and return rates. Each goal makes sense. They just don't necessarily all fit together in the same product.

Choosing a product gradually becomes a negotiation among departments. If no one department dominates, they may reach a compromise: a competitive price, a decent margin, something that sells, and quality they can accept. What's “reasonable” gets worked out under those competing pressures.

You can insist that quality comes first and give the product team the final say. That may reduce the risk of recommending a poor product to your audience. It may also mean higher prices, lower margins, or fewer sales.

But now you have wages to pay. If you've taken investment, investors may want more revenue too. Once it was you, a camera, and a few products you knew well. Now every choice has to account for more people's interests.

You still try to balance quality, sales, and profit. But “doing what you most want to do” and “doing what you feel you have to do” are different things. In this story, quality standards begin to slip. Everyone is trying to keep those compromises within an acceptable range.

Following the Process Doesn't Guarantee a Good Product

As the team grows, it gets harder to know what has happened with every product.

Information passes through more people before it reaches you. Details get lost. Each department wants its part of the business to look good in the reports. You have those reports in front of you, but you can no longer keep track of every supplier and every decision the way you once could.

The employees may all be working hard, but taking care of one part and seeing the whole are different things. A product can pass every required step and still have a defect. More products mean more decisions to track. The process lets you handle a larger business, and you depend on it more and more to tell you about the details you can't check yourself.

Merchants have their own numbers to make work. They need an attractive price, a commission for your team, and a profit left over. Under that pressure, product quality may be sacrificed again.

There doesn't have to be a villain behind this. Everyone can be working toward the targets they're given and still create risks none of them wanted. That's harder to make sense of than “one person was dishonest.”

More Reasons to Keep Going, Less Room to Stop

Now your days are full of meetings, livestream figures, return rates, negotiations, and scheduling. It may have been a long time since you sat down and focused on making a video the way you did at the beginning. The thing that first got people's attention is the thing you no longer have time for. Your energy goes into running the business built around that attention.

Stopping isn't easy either. Employees depend on those jobs. Closing the business may mean severance payments, commitments to merchants, and obligations to investors. The details depend on the arrangements, but you can't simply decide not to post next week and walk away.

So you keep going. The business grows, you're more tired, and you know less and less about what's actually happening inside it. You may have earned a lot of money, but your life looks very different from when you first wanted to make videos.

Then a faulty product can become a crisis of trust. People trusted your judgment, but the system choosing those products is now too large for you to oversee as closely as before. Trust helped build the business. When something goes wrong, that same trust takes the hit.

I think it's too easy to look at the final scandal and say, “Success changed them.” The danger was already there in decisions that seemed sensible at the time. Each step brought another responsibility. Meeting those responsibilities called for more growth. Eventually, the original promise became harder to keep.

This is a hypothetical path. I'm not saying every creator who sells products will end up in trouble. What interests me is that getting here doesn't necessarily require anyone to act with malice. The possibility of reversal is already forming while the numbers are still improving.

Why Changing Course Looks Easier in Hindsight

The same hindsight appears in explanations of why successful companies failed to adapt. Take one argument about IBM: that it lost its former dominance because it “failed to embrace cloud computing.”

I'm interested in what that explanation leaves out. It isn't a complete history of IBM. Deciding whether to change direction when you already have an established, profitable server business is very different from looking back once the importance of the new model is clear.

If you're running that business, the existing operation brings in money every day. Changing course means risking something you already have for a future that is still uncertain. Even if you're willing, you have shareholders and employees to contend with. Their interests are tied to the existing business too.

“They should have changed sooner” leaves those pressures out. The people making the decision had to live with its consequences. The later observer doesn't.

It's much the same for the creator. The more successful you become, the more commitments you may have, and the less freely you can choose.

What Reversal Means Here

Chapter 40 says:

“Reversal is the movement of the Tao.”

Read alongside this story, I understand it this way: a system grows through feedback, and that growth can create the conditions for its reversal. The things that later trap it were once the things pushing it forward.

The Tao Te Ching also speaks of things growing strong and then growing old. Being bigger and more powerful doesn't necessarily make you less vulnerable. A growing organization brings new problems, some of which even the person at its center can't see clearly.

The Game of Life from earlier in the series offers another comparison. Once interactions begin, the larger pattern can develop beyond any one participant's intentions. Using it to think about a company and the Tao doesn't make the three the same thing.

What I find difficult is that removing the villain doesn't remove the problem. If everyone can be taking their job seriously while the whole system drifts away from its original purpose, how much control does the person supposedly in charge really have?

Next, I want to explore wu wei, not contending, and holding to softness: what they might mean when nobody can fully control the process.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help translate and edit the English.

Reading Index: The Taoist Worldview and Tao Te Ching 101

“In the past, people practiced the Tao, the way of life. They understood the principle of balance, of Yin and Yang, as represented by the transformation of the energies of the universe. Thus they formulated practices, such as Dao-yin, an exercise combining stretching, massaging, and breathing to promote energy flow, and meditation to help maintain and harmonize themselves with the universe.

Seeking emotional excitement and momentary pleasures, people disregard the natural rhythm and order of the universe.

On the mental level, one should remain calm and avoid excessive desires and fantasies, recognizing and maintaining the natural purity and clarity of the mind. When internal energies are able to circulate smoothly and freely, and the energy of the mind is not scattered, but is focused and concentrated, illness and disease can be avoided.

Previously, people lead a calm and honest existence, detached from undue desire and ambition; they lived with an untainted conscience and without fear. They were active, but never depleted themselves. Because they lived simply, these individuals knew contentment, as reflected in their diet of basic but nourishing foods and attire that was appropriate to the season... but never luxurious. Since they were happy with their position in life, they did not feel jealousy or greed. They had compassion for others and were helpful and honest, free from destructive habits. They remained unshakable and unswayed by temptations, and they were able to stay centered even when adversity arose. They treated others justly, regardless of their level of intelligence or social position.

I've heard of people in ancient times, spoken of as the immortals, who knew the secrets of the universe and held Yin and Yang, the world, in the palms of their hands. They extracted essence from nature and practiced various disciplines such as Dao-yin and Qigong, and breathing and visualization exercises, to integrate the body, mind, and spirit. They remained undisturbed and thus attained extraordinarily levels of accomplishment.
Can you tell me about them?

The immortals kept their mental energies focused and refined, and harmonized their
bodies with the environment. Thus, they did not show conventional signs of aging and were able to live beyond biological limitations. Not so long ago there were people known as achieved beings who had true virtue, understood the way of life, and were able to adapt to and harmonize with the universe and the seasons. They too were able to keep their mental energy through proper concentration. These achieved beings did not live like ordinary humans, who tended to abuse themselves.

They were able to travel freely to different times and places since they were not governed by conventional views of time and space. Their sense perceptions were supernormal, going far beyond the sight and hearing of ordinary humans.”

- HUANG DI NEI JING CH 1 ~ MAOSHING NI, PH.D.

I am a college student ( from a research institute and i am pursuing BSMS degree) (19M) from India and i started reading Tao Te Ching ( stephen mitchell). I am looking for someone who is also starting and wanna connect so that we both can talk about the verses. This will also ensure accountability. I am looking for an online partner as I was unable to find someone in my college because the one who have intrest in philosophiy either they are studying Indian or western.

Our Daoist organization is hosting an online Zoom event, and we would love to see who might be interested.
The main topics will cover Daoist cultivation techniques, book reviews and discussions, and Q and A for any doubts or questions you have.

I believe this will be a unique opportunity for direct conversation, as I have never seen a similar event like this hosted before, given that live broadcasting religious content is legally restricted in China.

Please leave a comment if you want to join and I will DM you the details. You are also welcome to share any suggestions on topics you would like to discuss.

Our legally registered religious organization is 'THE HIGHEST CLARITY SOCIETY OF AMERICA.' We are a formal/legitimate Taoist organization. Our Chinese name is 'Xian Men' (仙门).

I was born with scoliosis which causes my hips to be uneven, in turn functionally making my legs different lengths which causes my left ankle to roll inward and my stance to be uneven. I’m not too educated on these things so I’m worried this sort of thing impairs qi. I’m mainly practicing to have an actionable Taoist practice, be more in tune with my body and mind, be calmer and strengthen/loosen my body. I’ve been learning online, as there’s no teachers near me— at least none that I can afford. Mainly doing Lily Kuo Deemers 8 Brocades exercise.

I’d love if any of you could give me some more “traditional” online sources to learn qigong and meditation from, which dive into the philosophy.

Never been a religious or spiritual person. I found about Taoism through the cameo of The Tao of Pooh book on my TV series, Rescue Me. I tend to gravitate towards spirituality when I’m at my lowest.

I went through heartbreak and was chasing a partner who no longer wants to be with me. I’ve faced a lot of depression and rumination related to this. I am more recently trying to reframe my mindset, and shift my focus onto letting go, radical acceptance of things I cannot change. And ultimately walking away, even though I really don’t want to give up.

I’ve heard some good and bad about the book. And I’m a bit of an academic and hope to pursue my PhD, I hear it looks down on academia which makes me wary.

What would you recommend for someone in my position?

Some of it alignes with my morals already.

Some parts of me already goes with the flow instead of forcing it but I want to fully go of control over things that irritate me.

Im very interested im everyone's pov like beliefs and philosophy

I am in the UK, I've found online resources but I connect much better in person, I want to follow religious practices of Daoism. I cannot afford to travel to study under a Master, and it has me wondering, if there are any that exist within the UK?

I am completely dedicated to the practice, I feel my Tao and connect with it. But I want to do more, I am disabled so things like Qigong are out of my reach, I practice gentle Tai Chi to prepare my body for perhaps one day being able to practice Qigong.

Any help and guidance on religious Daoism is welcome, but I don't want to hear how the philosophers don't like the religious side, I study philosophy and the first thing we are taught is to have an open mind, so to close yours off so abruptly baffles me.

basically right before sleeping, i began to think about like flowing with life and such, and i was like damn the yin-yang symbol is unique, so as i was sleeping, i started to play it in my mind moving and this is what resulted just before fully going into sleep.

I saw it like an army, in the first two empires or countries with their territories, one attacks the other from its vulnerable part, the other retaliates, so it gives the second symbol, yin-yang without the drops within each, seeing themselves cornered the soldiers go in a last ditch attack and fight to the end penetrating that dominance putting the drop there, and this happen from both sides, the other side also being overpowered make a last ditch attack and push themself in the other and the rest is as the video.

Its just a creative thought, nothing to think hard about.

what do you guys think?

I have practiced Theravada Buddhism for years and want to learn about Taoism. There are so many people on YouTube who claim to teach the Dao, but it’s difficult to ascertain who is authentic. Any suggestions?

Daodejing 79

• {79ii} 是以聖人執左契 而不責於人. 有德司契 無德司徹.
• Hence the sage holds the left portion of the [contractual] agreement2, but doesn't [force] responsibility/blame on the person.

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Those who are interested to know how an ancient chinese contract that is torn into a left and right half roughly works, can check out the twitter link and see the embedded video:

https://x.com/chintokkong/status/2113076973979508789?s=20

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(edit): Thanks to mancwhopper's comment, it should be noted that paper is very unlikely to be used as the medium of the contract given the context of daodejing in zhou dynasty. More likely to be wooden strip or wooden tablet.

The authentication mechanism of breaking into two matching portions should basically remain the same regardless of the medium used.